Calarose: The Untold Story Of Rapunzel's Twin Sister
by XxNoGoodDeedxX
Summary: You all know the story of Rapunzel: Stolen from her family…. Locked up in a tower… Long hair…. Handsome prince…. Yadda yadda yadda, happily ever after, the end. That's all well and good, I guess. But what about me? Where's my happy ending? Where's my fairy-tale? Nowhere, because darling Rapunzel completely cut me out of her story! Who am I? I'm Rapunzel's twin sister. MY FIRST FIC


**DISCLAIMER: oooohhh... I'm so excited! My very first disclaimer! . Ehem: I do not own Rapunzel. However, Calarose is 1005 mine. :) yaaaaay! You may read now.**

You all know the story of Rapunzel: Stolen from her family…. Locked up in a tower… Long hair…. Handsome prince…. Yadda yadda yadda, happily ever after, the end. That's all well and good, I guess. But what about me? Where's my happy ending? Where's my fairy-tale? Nowhere, because darling Rapunzel completely cut me out of her story! Who am I? I'm Rapunzel's twin sister.

_Rapunzel didn't have a twin_, you say. _She was all alone in that tower_, you say. Wrong and wrong. My name is Calarose, and I _am_ Rapunzel's twin. My hair is much shorter, I spend all of my free time reading, and I've never even been on a date, there for any story about my life would be a bit on the dull side. So, prepare to be very bored, because I'm going to share with you my story. Well, it's Rapunzel's story too, but I'll be telling the truth this time. I won't be adding any of the little embellishments she threw in.

The whole thing began before Rapunzel and I were born. Our real parents lived in this little shack of a house in a small village. Our parents were very young and not all that good at managing money, which is the reason they couldn't afford a nice house or the rampion our mother (for some odd reason) craved during pregnancy. She would lie in bed and stare out the window at Mommy Gothel's vegetable garden and then throw a hissy fit because she couldn't have any of it.

"But _Chester,_"She would whine to our father, "I swear to god if I don't get any of that rampion I'm gonna die!"

"Oh please, stop over reacting Laura, you're not going to die just because you don't eat a weird cross between an onion and a potato." Father sighed.

"Yes…I…Will…" Mother sobbed, pouting miserably. "I neeeeeed it!"

"And I need peace and quiet." Father mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Er, nothing Dearest." Father covered swiftly, "I just can't bear to see you suffer like this. I'll go over to the neighbor's house and see if she'll spare any for you."

So our father went over to Mommy Gothel's house, and instead of knocking on the front door and asking politely, he decided to scale the fence of her garden. Like I said: He was young and not the brightest. However, he did make it in and out without being caught, which was lucky.

"Here you are, Darling." He handed mother a sack of rampion when he walked in the door.

Mother thanked him profusely before scarfing the strange vegetable down raw. He thought that would be the end of it, but now that mother had tasted the rampion she wanted more. She began whining and complaining again, now more than before.

Father had to go back, again, and climb the fence, again. This time, his weight was too much for the fence, which was only supposed to hold back pesky deer and rabbits. Father tumbled from the fence and landed directly in Mommy Gothel's calarose bush.

"What's going on out there?" Mommy Gothel yelled from the upstairs window. She came rushing down the stairs and out the front door, her hair all up in curlers. "What do you think you're doing in my garden?" She surveyed the scene; the fallen fence and father in the calarose bush. "My poor calaroses, you've crushed them! Explain yourself!"

Now, don't get the real Mommy Gothel confused with the way Rapunzel portrayed her in her story. Gothel is _not_ an enchantress, and is most definitely not evil. She's just a kind, misunderstood woman. She's always loved children, but was unable to have children of her own. At first, she and her husband decided they would adopt, but after he passed away she wouldn't do it. She wanted them to raise the child together. She lived alone in the house for the years after her husband's death, with only her garden to keep her company. Now father had ruined her only happiness.

"Well?!" She cried, "What were you doing?"

"I was… um… You see my wife…. Um…" Father mumbled, trying to hide the rampion he had picked behind his back.

"Not only have you destroyed my roses, but you've stolen my rampion as well!" Mommy Gothel was appalled. "You leave me no choice but to send for the town guard, young man."

"No, please, anything but that!" Father begged. He'd had a few run-ins with the town guard for gambling incidents, and if he got in trouble with them one more time he would be sent to the dungeons.

"I don't suppose you could pay for these damages?" Gothel inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I'm poor, I have no money but—"

"I've heard enough, I'm going to get the guards now." She turned to leave just as father yelled:

"I'll give you my child!"

Mommy Gothel turned back to him, "Are you insane? You'll simply hand over your child to me just so you can avoid trouble?"

"If you give me all of your rampion and don't call the guards, I'll give you my child." Father insisted, "My wife is seven months pregnant, there is no way we could afford to raise a child anyway. What do you say?" He extended his hand to her.

Mommy Gothel shook his hand. "Very well. If you are willing to give your child away to save yourself, it would be cruel of me to leave the poor thing with you."

Father thanked her for her understanding then ran back home with a sack of rampion. He went inside to mother's bedside to explain to her what he had done.

"Did you get the rampion, dear?" Mother asked.

"Yes, but I promised our child to Gothel in exchange. I'm so sorry Laura; I don't know what I was thinking…" Father grabbed her hand and was about to continue apologizing.

"Oh that's a shame… so where's the rampion?" Mother held out her free hand for the sack.

Father was surprised. "Laura? I just said I gave away our child. Don't you care?"

"Hush, dear, I'm eating."

So, months passed and finally mother gave birth to Rapunzel and I, which was a big shocker for everyone, because they didn't know they would have twins. Mommy Gothel was really happy; it was like two daughters for the price of one.

She took the two babies, naming one Calarose (that's me!) after the flowers father crushed, and naming the other Rampion (that's Rapunzel, before she changed her name!) after the vegetable mother craved so much while pregnant for us.

Mommy Gothel brought us back to her home, where we lived happily for about five years. Our real parents didn't want the shame and ridicule of admitting to selling their children, so they made up a story about Gothel forcing father to give us to her. The villagers already disliked Mommy Gothel and thought she was an enchantress, so convincing them that she had stolen us away from our real parents wasn't very hard to do.

It got so bad that the villagers would circle around our house every night and chant for our release, brandishing pitchforks and torches. Rapunzel and I weren't allowed to play outside anymore, because sometimes a brave, or maybe foolish, villager would venture onto Mommy Gothel's property and try to carry the two of us away. Mommy always managed to chase them away, but she didn't like how we had to live, so she decided it was time for us to move.

One night, when the rioting villagers were distracted, Mommy Gothel snuck us out the back door and ran away with us into the woods. She had made arrangements with a friend of hers to procure us a new home— a home where we would be safe from the onslaught of angry villagers— and the friend came through for us.

I remember the first and last time I saw the tower from the outside. It loomed above us, foreboding and terrifying for a five year old. I remember tilting my head back trying to see all the way to the top. I couldn't.

Mommy Gothel lead us to a small hidden door at the back. The door opened to a spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. About ten steps up, Rapunzel was whining and begging to be carried. Gothel lifted Rapunzel up, but the extra weight seemed to make climbing more difficult for her. Though my legs were killing me, I didn't want to make Mommy Gothel's load any heavier. We were all thankful to reach the top and go to bed.

The tower was beautiful on the inside. It had a quaint little kitchen, a cozy sitting room, a surprisingly large library, two bathrooms and two bedrooms. Though it took a little while to get used to the elevation, Rapunzel and I soon adjusted to our new home.

Life carried on happily then, and Rapunzel and I— who had started out rather close— each grew into our own person. Rapunzel loved beauty. At the age of ten she would sit in front of the mirror in our bedroom for hours, just trying on dresses or brushing her long blonde hair until it shone. Whereas I would spend hours in the library reading, not caring what I had on or if I had even brushed my hair that day.

We were thirteen when Rapunzel changed her name from Rampion to Rapunzel. It was never official, she just stopped answering to Rampion and insisted that Mommy and I call her Rapunzel. When mother asked her why she didn't like her name, Rapunzel answered that it was no fair.

"Why is it that Callie is named after a beautiful, rare, purple rose and I'm named after a potato!?" Rapunzel cried.

"Actually, a rampion is a completely unique vegetable. People just say it is a cross between an onion and a potato because that is the only way to describe both the flavor and texture." I pointed out, looking up from the history book I was reading.

Rapunzel just shot me a glare then turned back to Mommy waiting for a reply.

"Each of your names hold a special meaning, they tell the story of how you came to be mine, Rampion." Mommy Gothel answered softly.

"_My name is _Rapunzel!_"_ She huffed and stormed off to our room. She would have slammed the door, but she couldn't because her long hair would get caught in it.

"Should I tell her that _Rapunzel _means _bovine _in another language?" I whispered quietly to Mommy.

"Be nice to your sister, dear." Gothel scolded, but her small smile gave her away.

I did pick on Rapunzel, just as she did me, but in truth I was jealous of her. We were identical twins, but she was so much prettier.

Her eyes were a vibrant blue, like the sky on a cloudless day, and mine were the color of murky water. Not brown, not blue, not nearly as interesting as Rapunzel's. Her hair, as you know, was incredibly long and shiny. I gave up trying to grow mine long ago and now wore it short and choppy. My dirty blonde was nothing compared to her golden rays of sunshine.

She liked to remind me of it too. She would make sure to take her hair out of its braid and brush it whenever I was in the room, or she would comment on how closely the color of her eyes matched the feathers of the blue jay that liked to perch on our windowsill on warm days. Anything to remind me who was better.

As we got older, Rapunzel got more outspoken. I remember the day she declared she would no longer refer to Gothel as her mother. Mommy cried for a long time, I did my best to comfort her.

On our sixteenth birthday, though Mommy Gothel made sure to spend the same amount on each of our gifts, Rapunzel threw a tantrum because I got fifteen books and she only got two new dresses. Gothel tried to explain that the dresses were ten gold pieces each and that she spent the same amount on my books, but Rapunzel wasn't having any of it.

I really thought that tantrums would be the worst of it, but I guess I brought the worst of it on us myself… it was an accident though.

I was laying on my bed one day, reading one of the new books I got for my sixteenth birthday and I was singing.

"Calarose, would you _please _stop that dreadful howling." Rapunzel moaned, "I'm trying to focus on styling my hair!"

"Terribly sorry, Your Majesty." I muttered sarcastically, getting up to bow to her. "I'll take my lowly self out to the sitting room and continue my dreadful howling there, if that's alright with you." I didn't wait for a response; I just walked from the room.

So, like a total dork, I just sat by the window and sang. I wasn't embarrassed about singing because Mommy Gothel was out to the market at that time. When I heard her approach bellow the tower, I stopped singing and got Rapunzel.

"Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Mommy called. It was too difficult for her in her old age to take the stairs.

Sighing with annoyance, Rapunzel dropped her braid over the windowsill and together we pulled Mommy up.

I started singing by the window every time Mommy Gothel went out, it was peaceful and the birds outside seemed to like it. About a week after I started singing at the window, someone other than Gothel approached the base of the tower and I stopped singing immediately, frightened by the stranger.

"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" a man's voice called.

Rapunzel immediately went to the window and was about to drop her braid when I caught her arm.

"What are you doing?" I hissed, "We don't know who that is, don't bring a stranger up here! He could be a murderer, or a robber!"

"Oh don't be silly! Whoever he is, he asked for me!" She shrugged off my grasp and dropped her braid. It was slow going without my help, but eventually a handsome dark haired boy, who looked to be about two or three years older than us, was in the room with us.

"Two?" The boy seemed surprised at first, but then he bowed formally, "I am Prince Leon, might I ask which of you lovely ladies is always singing so enchantingly from yonder window?" Though he was addressing both of us, he was only looking at Rapunzel. He was hoping it was she who did the singing, because she is so much prettier than I. Sorry to burst his bubble.

Nervously I stepped forward, "Um... It was me—"

"It was I, dear Prince!" Rapunzel cried dramatically, all but throwing herself at him. "Oh what a joy that you've heard me, for I have prayed that someone—anyone— would hear my desperate cries for salvation from the retched witch that has trapped me here!"

I could hardly believe my ears, first she takes credit for my singing then she calls Mommy Gothel a witch?!

"Oh, sweet lady! It must have been torture to be held here for so many years!" The price pulled her into a protective hug.

"Oh it was, it was! You've no idea what it was like!" Rapunzel sobbed.

"Have no fear; your prince is here now! I shall free you with the power of my love!"

I burst out laughing, but disguised it as a cough.

Rapunzel and Prince Love looked over at me as if just realizing I was in the room.

"Sorry, sorry." I gasped out, still cough/laughing, "Don't mind me, just choked on some bad acting…. Carry on with the love fest." I wiped a tear from my eye, and laughed all the way out of the room.

A few hours later the price left, promising to return for his "one and only true love." (gag me!) Rapunzel came into the library and glared at me, "Why were you laughing?" She insisted, "Just because the prince loves me and not you doesn't mean you need to get jealous!"

"Oh please! You've known him for all of three hours and you're in love?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, yes. For your information we are in love." She crossed her arms stubbornly.

"_riiight…." _I rolled my eyes, "So when are you planning on telling Mommy? Oops, sorry, I mean "The Witch?""

Rapunzel dropped down on the floor next to me. "I'm not going to tell her. Leon and I are going to run away together."

"Are you crazy Rapunzel!?" I turned to face her, "You barely know this prince, you claim you're in love with him… you would leave your family for a total stranger!"

She stood up again, angry. "I wouldn't expect you to understand! Gothel loves you, she's always liked you better! From the moment we were born you've been her favorite! She named you after a calarose— Her favorite flower! Me, I'm named after some weird pregnancy craving our real mom had! That's not a connection to Gothel! That doesn't bring us any closer together!"

So she wants to play this game, huh? "Really?" Now I'm standing too. "This whole thing is about our _names? _That's what you're going to complain about?! You are perfect for crying out loud! I've always been so jealous of you; you have the looks, the talent: I couldn't paint like you do if I tried! And now on top of that you have a prince…. And you're going to complain about our names!_"_ I taste salt on my lips and realize I'm crying, I'm not even sure when I started to cry.

Rapunzel begins to cry too, "Don't you see, Callie? I've always been jealous of you! All I wanted was to be loved by our mom, but she never seemed to have the time of day for me. She taught you how to read for crying out loud— I still don't even know how to write my own name!" She breaks off sobbing but then she looks up at me and continues quietly, "In the few hours I've known Leon he's shown me more love than you and Gothel have my whole life. Is it so much to ask that I get to be happy?"

I remain silent.

"Is it!?" She screams.

"No." I answer finally. "If leaving will make you happy, go." My voice cracks with the weight of my tears and pain, "Because you being gone… will make me happy too." I bit out.

She nods silently, then turns to leave the library. "Goodbye, sister." She says, looking over her shoulder at me one last time.

I stayed in the library with my thoughts until I heard Gothel yelling for Rapunzel to let down her hair. Slowly, I walked to the window, unsure how to get Mommy Gothel up now that Rapunzel was gone. I didn't have to think of a solution, there by the window was Rapunzel's braid. She had cut it off.

I tied the braid to one of the hooks above the window and dropped the braid down to Mommy. It was difficult to pull her up— I had never done it by myself before.

When Mommy was all the way inside I explained to her what had happened. As I told the story, I started crying again. Mommy Gothel joined me in crying and we both comforted each other.

I'm now eighteen. Last night, I got a letter from an address I didn't recognize. The letter said:

_**Dearest Calarose,**_

_**I would like to inform you of the birth of your niece and nephew—**_

_**Callie and Gotheleon.**_

_**As you can see, I have learned how to write, and read as well.**_

_**I'm sorry for the suffering I've caused for both you and our mother.**_

_**I am happy.**_

_**I can now only hope that you forgive me.**_

_**Your happiness is out there somewhere, I know it.**_

_**You're not the type of person to sit around and wait for happiness to find you—that's me.**_

_**You need to find happiness yourself.**_

_**Go make your fairytale happen.**_

_**~Rampion**_

**THE END**


End file.
